Huge research grant to fight LCA

We recently learned that five Canadian and American teams, among which Dr. Koenekoop's from Montreal, had obtained a 2.4 million dollar grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Foundation Fighting Blindness Canada (FFB), to research gene therapy for number of retinal diseases, including Leber Congenital Amaurosis. That was exciting enough, but today it has been reported that the grant is actually larger, amounting to 3 million dollars!!

The project on LCA will last five years, and has the ambitious goals to develop gene therapy for other types of LCA, after the RPE65 trial success. As far as I know, the focus will be on the CEP290 gene, LCA10, which is the main cause of Leber's. This part of the project will begin with research on the RD16 mouse and the Abyssinian cat (naturally occurring animal models of CEP290 LCA), and finally, if all goes well, on humans!!

Here are a couple of links to learn more

http://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/news/item/?item_id=103088

http://www.gtamotorcycle.com/vbforum/showthread.php?p=770014#post770014